Labyrinth
by RYNO IV
Summary: "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? No says the man in Washington, it belongs to the poor. No says the man in the Vatican, it belongs to God. No says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose Rapture." There was one question He didn't ask: Is a man not entitled to his mind?


_I made this a while back for my English class - I hope that you guys like it. Either way I probably won't go anywhere with this._

_Cheers_

_-RYNO_

* * *

Labyrinth

It was dark, the black veil oppressive and menacing. Though, I guess everything about this nightmarish pit is menacing. My tired feet drag on the tiled floor as I pull myself along the abandoned corridor. I just barely managed to make out shadows in the pitch-black room – a cracked vase, spilling muddy dirt and its fern that has barely managed to survive.

A ruined couch on the other side of the hall was nearly split in half from an unknown, terrifying force.

Chunks of the walls and ceiling have been ripped off, probably by the same thing that ripped apart the couch.

This corridor was once part of a five star hotel. Golden leaf and silver gilding adorn the pillars that support the walls, which were draped with the finest satin curtains.

A sheen of water rests on the surface of the tiles, producing a quiet slapping sound with each uncertain and tired step I take. I guess the water can be expected from the continual dripping from the water-stained ceiling. The salty water constantly invading the building had tarnished the silver and left any other metal rusted, the fine satin now tattered and stained. Much of the floor was broken and deeper pools of water had formed where the sea had leaked in.

I don't even know where this hellish place is. The first thing I remember is waking up in a ruined hospital room, and hiding from a lumbering giant in an armored diving suit. The beast's guttural groans had shaken me to my core, and its heavy footsteps made the ground shudder. I only barely managed to suppress my whimpers of fear.

I was stuck in that closet for hours.

I kept catching sight of some… creature. It's always ahead of me, staring at me with its single amber-glowing eye. It looks human, but only a few hours in this place had taught me to stay away from things that look human.

Anyone would learn that _very_ quickly.

This place is twisted. The people here have been twisted just as much, if not more, by altering their own bodies. They gained power by being able to hold and throw fire in their fists, snatch things out of the air with the power of their minds and turn invisible at will.

The cost was their sanity. But despite losing that important thing that made them human, their bodies lived on and survived in frightening numbers. I try my best to move around unseen by Them, but there are many of Them.

Suddenly I trip over something unseen on the floor, falling to the ground with a panicked thud. I yelp and scramble away, and my stomach lurches as I realize what I tripped on.

A severed human arm.

My breath catches in my throat as I flail back, scrambling to get away from the thing. In my terror I forget about the nightmarish beings here - any trace of reason vanished, and I stupidly dashed down the hall. I don't even care that some twisted freak that was once human saw me... and _shot_ at me.

I needed to get away.

Finally I stumble and fall to my knees. My mad sprint took me somewhere else... though still in the same building. For once, I can't hear the deranged mutterings of things that were once human, or the heavy footsteps of the lumbering beast.

Just quiet.

My blood pounds in my ears as I grip my curiously oversized and cold head, not feeling the touch of my own hands. I look up, seeing an open doorway. It was like the old saying, "Like a moth to a flame."

That room seemed more inviting to me that anything I had ever seen. Lost in this dark hallway, the blue, ethereal light entranced me, beckoning me forward.

I heeded the call and rose to my feet.

But something caught my eye - a flash of yellow.

Suddenly I'm annoyed. I'm tired of this… _thing_ following, and despite my common sense screaming at me not to do so, I pick myself up off the floor along with whatever scraps of courage I have and walk into the room.

I walk through the short entryway, and come into a spacious room. It's the remnants of what was once a living room; a tattered couch stood against the far wall, a smashed TV in front of it, and another doorway leading off somewhere. However, those aren't the things that caught my attention.

The wall behind the couch was a large pane of glass, looking out onto a child's underwater dream. The landscape was adorned with aquatic flora, bioluminescent and bathing the area in a beautiful and unearthly glow. Marine life dart in and out of the scene, which was framed by the corroded window. Beyond that, an underwater city reached for the surface, the tall buildings boasting of a ruined, underwater utopia.

But there was something else.

I recoiled in horror when I saw the creature that has been plaguing me, a creature straight from a nightmare. A black diving suit clung to its lithe, feminine figure, and on it's legs, arms and upper torso was layers of metal that had become rusted from years of seawater and neglect. A huge, harpoon-like needle extended from a gauntlet on the creature's right hand, but even that wasn't what scared me.

What was most terrifying is that the creature, the one staring right at me, had no face. Only a rusty, spherical diving helmet and the amber glow emanating from the shadowy porthole.

I stared at the horrible monster, and it stared back with no sign of emotion or interest. I feared that at any moment the eerie yellow light would turn a vengeful red, foreshadowing the beast's lethal attack.

But… it didn't. It just stared at me. I take a gulp and decide to slowly back away - hopefully, it wouldn't see me as a threat and let me leave with my body intact.

As I took a step backward, so did the creature. I stopped and stared in disbelief, and vaguely remembered how glass was like a mirror...

_It's not possible… is it?_

I slowly raised my hand took a tentative step forward, the creature mirroring my movements. A cold sense of dread fell on me as I took another step and another… until I had placed my black-gloved hand on the surface of the glass. The creature placed its hand on the glass as well.

I hope against reality and squeeze my eyes shut, hoping this is all a bad dream… but to my horror, it isn't.

I have been looking at my own reflection.

This nightmarish abomination… is me.

My helemt-encased head clunks against the glass and I fall to my knees. I will never escape this labyrinth.

It is a part of me... and I am a part of it.


End file.
